Koh Rong Samloem
Koh Rong Samloem is the island you walk across: no sealed roads, no vehicles, half an hour of jungle trail to the next beach. At new moon the plankton light up as you swim.
Koh Rong Samloem in a nutshell
Koh Rong Samloem: what to expect
Every figure here is drawn from 164,000+ stops planned in Cambodia on Stippl.
Koh Rong Samloem is a third the size of its sister island and has no sealed road on most of it, so you walk between bays or you take a boat. Saracen Bay is the long white crescent with the piers and most of the beds, M'Pai Bay in the north is a working fishing village, and Lazy Beach and Sunset Beach are twenty-five to forty-five minutes away through jungle. Cambodia's first marine national park surrounds the island, which is why the snorkelling is worth doing.
The island everyone recommends for slowing down is the one people leave sooner. Fewer than one stay in ten here runs to five nights, against a quarter on Koh Rong, and the longest tenth tops out at four nights where Koh Rong's reaches six. Two thirds of the trips that carry Koh Rong Samloem carry Koh Rong as well, so the question of which island to choose is one most travellers simply decline to answer.
Pick the bay before the hotel, because 3 nights on the wrong one is a different holiday. The plankton is better here than on the big island for the plain reason that there are more dark beaches to swim from. The old lighthouse is an hour south of Saracen Bay. Avoid May to October, when the crossing turns unreliable and can strand you, and bring cash, because there is no machine on the island.
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Anyone wanting Koh Rong quieter
Samloem is Koh Rong without the bar strip, and that is the island's whole positioning.
Couples
Saracen Bay has genuine mid-range and small-resort accommodation from about €43 that Koh Rong's party end does not, and the quiet ends of it are quiet.
Budget backpackers
Dorm beds from about €4 to 6 in M'Pai Bay and on Saracen Bay, with a hostel scene that is social without being a pub crawl.
Snorkellers and divers
Two dive operations on the island, a marine national park around it, and shore snorkelling straight off the rocks at M'Pai Bay.
Walkers
The only island in Cambodia where the interior is genuinely walkable between bays, on marked jungle trails of 25 minutes to an hour.
Anyone wanting to vanish
Wifi is patchy to absent, there is no ATM, the ferry can stop for days, and most people give it 3 nights regardless.
Maybe not for you: anyone who needs reliable wifi or medical care; anyone arriving May to October, when the crossing is unreliable and can strand you; anyone who wants to move around a lot, since there are no vehicles; and heavy luggage bound for anywhere but Saracen Bay.
The best time to visit Koh Rong Samloem
Dry season
November to April
Calm sea, running ferries, clear water and the plankton at its best. The whole season, and Christmas and New Year is the busiest week of it by a distance.
Wet season
June to September
Rough seas, high winds and cancelled ferries, with the island cut off for days at a time on a bad swell. A first-hand account from October 2025 describes exactly that.
The shoulders
May and October
Cheaper, quieter and a gamble on any given week. October is about comfort, not crossings, whatever one guide says.
- January is the month most travellers plan Koh Rong Samloem for on Stippl, about 77 days ahead. 20.2% of Samloem plans are made inside a fortnight; this is the most seasonal destination in Cambodia by our own travellers, and nearly all of them come in the dry months.
- Christmas and New Year is the island's busiest week by a distance. Saracen Bay's bungalows sell out; a stay over the holiday is booked in the autumn or it is a stay on Koh Rong instead.
- The bioluminescence needs a new moon, not a season. It is the darkness that matters and a full moon washes it out; aim for the calm dry-season nights around the new moon.
- A wet-season stay needs a spare night on the mainland. The ferries stop for swell from June to September and the island can be cut off for days; a flight the morning after a Samloem night is a gamble in those months.
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Things to do in Koh Rong Samloem
The bioluminescent plankton
Swim on a dark beach at new moon, better here than on Koh Rong because there are more dark beaches to choose from; free from Sunset Beach or the end of a boat trip. Take a mask.
Lazy Beach and Sunset Beach
Walk twenty-five to forty-five minutes on the jungle trail from Saracen Bay to the west-coast beaches, the most straightforward way to have a beach to yourself. Free, and the trail is signed from the pier.
Snorkelling the marine park
Snorkel off the rocks in M'Pai Bay and around Sunset Beach in Cambodia's first marine national park, free from the shore with a mask rented for €3. Mornings before the wind.
The island boat trip
Take the boat for snorkelling and fishing by day and plankton after dark, about €15 to €25, the standard way to see the coastline. Book at any bungalow on Saracen Bay.
The old lighthouse
Walk an hour and five kilometres south from Saracen Bay to the island's best viewpoint, paying a dollar to the man who lives there. Real shoes, water, and the morning.
A day in M'Pai Bay
Spend a day in the only working village on the island, with one short road, no traffic and a fishing fleet, the closest thing here to seeing the place as its residents do. The boat from Saracen is about €5.
The neighbourhoods of Koh Rong Samloem
Saracen Bay
Long crescent, the piers, most beds
A long crescent of white sand on the east coast with the two main piers, most of the island's accommodation, a dozen beach restaurants and bars and the widest price range. For first stays and anyone who wants the choice.
Everything the island has on one beach, and the busiest sand on it.
M'Pai Bay
Fishing village, cheapest beds
A working fishing village in the north with one short road, the cheapest beds, the most hostels, a small bar scene and a village that lives there year-round. For backpackers and for the island's only real community.
The community and the price, and a boat to the other beaches.
Sunset Beach
West coast, rustic, divers
The west coast: rustic bungalows, glamping, divers and long-stayers, with the best sunsets and the clearest water and the least infrastructure. For people who want nothing to do and nowhere to be.
The sunsets and the water, and generators and a jungle walk to Saracen.
Lazy Beach
One cluster, total quiet
A small south-west bay with one cluster of bungalows and one restaurant, no village and no other options, reached by boat or a jungle walk. For the most isolated bed on the island.
Nobody else at all, and the one kitchen's menu for every meal.
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Where to stay in Koh Rong Samloem
Stay on Saracen Bay for a first visit: the widest range on the island sits on one beach within a short walk of the piers, and the other bays are a boat taxi away for the day. Most people give Koh Rong Samloem 3 nights on Stippl, on one bay. Listings here go stale faster than anywhere in Cambodia, so check the place still exists before you book.
Saracen Bay
€12–90
Dorms from €5, beach bungalows €25 to €60, and small resorts with a pool up to €80, all on one crescent.
M'Pai Bay
€5–35
The cheapest beds and the most hostels, €5 to €10 a bed, with a village round them and a curfew not everyone keeps.
Sunset Beach
€10–50
Raised huts, glamping tents and bungalows on evening-only power, €15 to €50, for divers and long-stayers.
Lazy Beach
€25–70
One cluster of bungalows with a restaurant and nothing else, €40 to €70, reached by boat or a jungle walk.
What to eat in Koh Rong Samloem
Fresh seafood and meat grilled on the sand in front of the restaurants, the island's default dinner
Bought off the day's boats; the one thing that is genuinely local and genuinely cheap
Amok, lok lak and fried rice, on almost every menu alongside the Western one
Burgers, pizza and breakfasts, more of the menu than most people expect
Small family-run places in M'Pai Bay doing coffee, smoothies and shakes, some with reusable straws as a deliberate stance
One Saracen Bay place has built a reputation on it, which is odd enough that two sources name it
If you stay at Lazy Beach or a remote bay you will eat every meal where you sleep, there is no alternative
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Koh Rong Samloem customs and what not to do
M'Pai Bay is a village
Around four hundred people live on the island and the fishing families whose boats you hire and whose beach you drink on are at work; their houses are not scenery.
The rubbish washes in
From Thailand, Vietnam and the mainland on a seasonal wind, onto the north-facing beaches for half the year; locals do most of the clearing, and a clean-up is joinable.
Less English than the mainland
Which is why the hostels recruit foreign volunteers; a few words of Khmer, a sampeah and patience at the village shop are the currency.
People here speak carefully
About the development especially: opposition is universal and nobody wants to be quoted, in a country where environmental campaigners have been jailed. Listen, and do not push.
Do
- Bring all the cash you will need, in small notes
- Confirm which bay your ferry docks at, and which bay your bed is on
- Join a beach clean-up if one is running while you are there
- Buy the boat trip from the village rather than only through the resort
Don't
- Plan a tight onward connection off the island outside November to April
- Expect to walk between bays with a wheeled suitcase
- Swim at night away from your own beach without a light and someone knowing
- Photograph people's homes in M'Pai Bay as scenery
What a Koh Rong Samloem trip costs
Budget
€18–30
Dorm in M'Pai Bay or Saracen Bay, cheapest meals, no tours.
Mid-range
€55–100
A room with air conditioning on Saracen Bay, boat trips, diving.
High-end
€100+
A small resort's better rooms, private boat transfers, full board.
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Fun facts about Koh Rong Samloem
Koh Rong Samloem has no sealed roads and effectively no vehicles. Movement between the bays is on foot through the jungle or by boat, which is why choosing the right bay matters so much.
The water around the island is Cambodia's first marine national park. Fishing inside it is restricted, and the protection is the reason the snorkelling off the reef is worth doing at all.
The beach rubbish switches coasts with the wind every six months. North-facing beaches take it for half the year and south-facing beaches for the other half, so the clean beach depends on the season.
Great hornbills still live in the island's forest. A pair was recorded in October 2025, which naturalists read as a sign that the interior forest is intact despite the concessions.
About 2,190 of the island's 2,400 hectares are under two 99-year development leases. The contracts date from 2008, evictions began in 2023, and Saracen Bay is nonetheless open and trading through 2026.
Travellers stay longer on the party island than on the quiet one. On Stippl, Koh Rong gets more nights than Koh Rong Samloem, the opposite of what both islands' reputations predict.
Local tips for Koh Rong Samloem
Check which bay you land at
The piers are on Saracen Bay and M'Pai Bay at opposite ends, and an hour's jungle walk apart. Book the boat for your beach, and some resorts run their own for guests.
Ferries stop in swell
Between June and October wind and swell cancel crossings and have cut the island off for days. Do not book a flight for the morning after a Samloem night in those months.
You are walking or on a boat
Scooter rental barely exists and there is nowhere to ride one. The trails are real jungle paths with roots and, on the Sunset Beach descent, fixed ropes; twenty-five to forty-five minutes between bays.
How long to stay
Most people give Samloem 3 nights on Stippl: Saracen Bay, a walk to Lazy Beach and a plankton night. The quiet island of the two.
No medical care on the island
The mainland is one to two hours away by boat and the boat does not always run. Travel insurance with evacuation cover matters more than the beach suggests.
Carry a torch and a power bank
Power cuts are normal even where power is nominally 24-hour, the jungle trails are unlit and dusk here is quick. The island itself has no crime problem.
Koh Rong Samloem questions, answered
Pick the bay before you pick the room, because moving between them means a boat taxi or a jungle path. Saracen Bay has the choice and the pier, M'Pai Bay the cheap beds and a village, Sunset Beach the nothing to do. People book it about 77 days out on Stippl, so put the ferry days into Stippl early.
Three nights. Plans built on Stippl settle on 3 nights for Koh Rong Samloem, and it is the single most common length rather than an average of extremes. Two shows you one bay; the third is what the island is actually for.
Not really, and few people try: 18.4% of Koh Rong Samloem stops planned on Stippl are a single night. With a ferry at both ends that leaves you an afternoon and a morning, which is not enough to walk to a second bay, let alone to stop.
Saracen Bay if it is your first time or you want a choice of places and a pier to land at. M'Pai Bay for the cheapest beds and a village around them. Sunset Beach if the plan is to do nothing at all, and you can live with the power going off.
Yes, on jungle trails, and it is half the appeal. Saracen Bay to Lazy Beach is about twenty-five minutes and Sunset Beach thirty to forty-five, with ropes on the last descent. Not with a suitcase and not after dark. Boat taxis run between the bays if you would rather not walk.
Yes, roughly between June and October. The ferry is the only way off and it stops for wind and swell, and travellers have sat out several days with no boats at all. Build a spare day on the mainland before any flight, and never put the island last in a tight trip.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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